Yay chapter two! And some new faces in the story! Please review and tell me how you like their characterization!

Chapter 2 Meeting in Markit

A month went by and a hot summer morning saw Yuliana and Master Raryen fighting on a training place. It was near the market place where the tournament would start in less than an hour.

“Good”, Master Raryen said. Yuliana watched him wary. Sometimes he ended a fight and then tested her skills with aiming at a part of her body she didn't thought of to guard it.

“Stretch yourself a bit and then clean your weapon. You could be the best fighter of the world-”

“But if your weapons aren't clean they will be of no use.” Yuliana ended his sentence smirking and bowing in her teachers direction.

“And don't forget to preen your feathers, little one” he told her unimpressed. Yuliana wasn't his first student, but his first female and most studious. After they both had sorted the problem of her sometimes bad temper they worked together like clockwork. “They are a bit rumpled. That won't give the judges a good picture of you. They have enough prejudices against you and me, they don't need to think you aren't clean.”

“Yes, Master Raryen.” Yuliana went back to the little tent of hers standing in the outer rings of the camp of the participants. Her name was unknown and even if she was a citizen of Markit, they didn't gave her the honor of a place in the huge tent of the most successful fighters of Markit.

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There wasn't just a tournament in this rat hole the humans called Markit but also was it a market day. The young female angel with the fiery red head looked disdainfully around. How could a noble angel of the guild of the Leaders just stand this stench? It was no wonder that the fighters could stand it – they were all sweaty and stunk after a good fight. They were used to it.

The woman wished herself back into her quiet library where she could read and write the holy texts. But if she ever wanted to have a higher post and be allowed to interpret the texts, if she wanted to work in the library of the High Court, she had to go on at last three missions. And in these days it was hard to get one. This would be her first. It could take her some thousand years till she had the acquired number of missions – but her goal was worth this price.

She went through the crowds using her powers to deflect the auras of the other, so they would make place for her.

“Stop!” A male voice called out to her and she froze mid step. She turned around to see an angel coming her way.

“What do you want?”

“Even if you are to arrogant to adjust to the society you are in you should watch out were you are going”, the tall man in the old leather clothes typical for a Hunter of the Long Hill Mountains told her. His voice was so deep like she never heard before. As soon as his rude words registered with her she wanted to give him a piece of her mind but he didn't paid any attention to her.

He knelt before a little girl that had lost his puppet – which lay not a centimeter of the female angels foot away. “She didn't mean it” he told the little girl with a friendly smile. “Do you know where your mother is?”

The girl with the blond locks just shook her head, watching the angel before her in awe.

The woman snorted and the man looked at her with a piercing gaze. “Watch your steps, Annalist. And watch your tongue.” That said he lifted the girl into his arms and disappeared in the crowd, leaving a seething angel behind.

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Helior sat on a rooftop and watched the happy hullabaloo which wavered through the whole city. He liked Markit, it was a good and rural appearing lieu just a few miles away from the border to the next country. The influences of it were traceable. If one looked for it he could find many different architectural styles that dated nearly two and a half century back.

He had read that it had been first a settlement of Healers who harvested seldom medicinal herbs on the heathland and the near forest before the humans came planting their crops and stocking the place with their cattle. Then the Hunters came too, because the rivers were full of fishes and the forest full of deer and boar. They held back just that what they needed for themselves and sold the most to the High Court. It gave some difficulties with the humans who had the first right of hunt – and they had been denied it. There were some fights till the High Court called most of the Hunters back. Some settled in the city like some of the Healers before them. And so Markit became a city with a population consisting of angels and humans that lived peacefully and friendly together. That was a rare sight in their world.

He whistled a happy tune and bit into the Heaven Bread filled with honey he had bought. He sighed delightfully. The angels here knew how to bake it to perfection.

Helior considered mingling with the masses and looking for the Leader that had chosen him to come with him on a mission. It was his third in the 5911 years of his life and he was glad to have gotten this golden feather. He laughed a melodiously gentle laugh. It would be so much fun to meet new people and places, to learn history and listen to stories and different tunes of music. He had loved that on his last mission, even if it had been arduous.

Suddenly a shadow fell over him. Winking he turned around to see one of his best friends. “You are here, too? I didn't thought you were someone to have fun at a tournament especially in such a city.”

“I am not here to watch the tournament, Helior. For that I lack your sunny self.” The other angel, who sat now beside Helior, showed him a golden feather. It was long and straight but on the left side a small piece was missing. It looked like it was cut out but Helior didn't question it. But he remembered something else.

“That is strange occurrence that you get a mission the same time as your sister. It is funny.”

“Do you think so?” the other angel asked and raised an eyebrow.

“Yes of course. I think it is her first mission, isn't it? She must be so proud – and you are stealing her show again. It must be hard to have a perfect elder brother.” Helior laughed and bit in his bread. “This stuff is really good, you should eat some.”

“Oh, I will, but could you look at me now?”

Helior glanced curiously at the other. His friend gripped his chin and locked their eyes. “What are you doing?” Helior asked with a slightly annoyed voice.

“I want you to forget.”

“What? Timbel, what are you doing?”

“I command you to forget anything about my sister. I don't want you to mention her or her mission ever again. You don't know her and you don't know me!”

Heliors eyes became unfocused. The angel he called “friend” and Timbel sat back on his haunches and took the Heaven Bread out of his hands.

A minute later the angels eyes were bright again. “Hullo” he said to the angel next to him. “Did you come here to watch the tournament?”

The other angel smiled and endured his old friends cheeriness while his heart shattered again on the cold wall that was called future.

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After leaving the Annalist he had taken the little girl to its mother who searched the child franticly and didn't bother to listen to the men around her, some of the city guard and some who seemed to belong to her family. They had told her that they would find Arnica and she should go to the tent of a healer to get something for her nerves.

He smiled at the little girl and her mother, who seemed to fight like a lioness for her child and was tempted to promise Arnica to go with her and her family. The men eyed him up doubtfully but didn't say anything when the woman thanked him wholeheartedly and invited him, too.

But he declined with the explanation that he was there with friends and they would search for him too. He took the girl in his arm and whispered a blessing in her hair. Then he gave her a candy out of his backpack that he had made himself and waved her goodbye.

The Hunter didn't listened to his conscience that scolded him for lying. The last few weeks it seemed to come in handy to be able to not care about the human believe that angels were pure souls, not able to be what was in their eyes bad. Who knew the High Court and his proceedings knew also the saying: “There is no rule that all angels have to be good.” Good and bad were categories without an in all races and states standardized meaning.

The angel sighed. He shouldn't even think about it. Those philosophical arguments made his head spin. He was just himself – and he had no time to waste with the little girl even if he liked her a lot because she looked like his mother when she had been a little girl. The Hunter was here to find his Leader. He could feel that he was near.

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Yuliana laid face down on her cot. She had cleaned her sword and preened her feathers with the help of Granny Marianna. The old woman even had plait a golden band into the young womans short hair to show her social class – Yuliana was unknown but she would be proud of being a Leader that had come into her inheritance at such a young age.

She had ten minutes left before she had to got to the market place to the opening ceremony. The last month had been exhausting. Never before had she experienced this much work, mistrust, happiness, dumb questions and dumber looks.

First there was the ambassador of the High Court who wanted to proof her claim to be a full member of the guild of Leaders and all her experiences and examination performances in the course of time. He spoke hours and hours with her grandmother and Master Raryen while she wasn't allowed to listen in. It was frustrating not to know what they told him and what he thought of it. But she had to show that she stood above such things and had to wait silently and standing in just one place in front of the door. After another questioning, now with her, that went over eight hours, that made her miss breakfast and lunch, she was ready to strangle him, but she showed him her nicest and happiest girly face. The third day he spoke with some of his superiors and they came to the conclusion that she could in fact and considering the status of her family lead a group of six angels in this mission.

Yuliana fasted for two days before she could accomplish the ceremony on the fifth evening. It didn't took her more than twenty minutes to send the feathers on their way and the official was amazed how good she knew intonations and movements. She would have liked to told him, that she might be a young angel but she wasn't dumb. Unfortunately she knew her manners to well. Never interrupt or ashame an ambassador of the High Court. That would gain you no Brownie points.

After the ambassador had said his goodbyes and flew back to Golden Cloud a sealed letter of her family had come. Yuliana had never seen the seal with the two dragons that bit each other in the ends of their tails but her grandmother knew it. Before Yuliana could open it Granny Marianna had taken and thrown it into the fire about which a kettle with tea water boiled.

Yuliana was short tempered and nearly at the end of her tether because of the fastening and the stress of having to pass the ambassadors examination, but her grandmother had cut her rant of with a no nonsense gaze and a few good aimed words that she shouldn't behave like a child and trust her. It was the indication that Yuliana didn't trusted her grandmother who had done so much for her, that made Yuliana break down. She wasn't seen for two days. She lived in Master Raryens home and trained like there was no morning without saying even one word. It was her luck that her teacher was a patient and kind man. He didn't forced her to speak with him about her problems but told her how she could improve her skills more and gave her some riddles to think about. If she wanted she could answer them, he told her. But in her time.

The third day Madreus came to visit and was her sparring partner. For a human who was specialized in using an arrow or a hawk for hunting he was good with a sword. And he knew some nasty tricks he never used before on Yuliana. But it did her some good that he used them now. Master Raryen could tell her what he did and he explicated some ways to avoid her opponents sword. After the fight Madreus had asked her if she learned something else than just his tricks and their counters. It took her the whole night to decipher his words. The next morning she wandered back to her grandmothers house and wondered about Madreus. He was just twenty-five but sometimes he seemed to be much older. At this thought it crossed her mind that Carol had to have his fingers in this. But she wasn't angry anymore. She understand that there were so many things she didn't knew about even if she was over two hundred years old and that every act had a more or less good explanation and a counter act.

She spoke with her grandmother about the letter and the seal. She learned that it was a special seal. When broken it unleashed a kind of magic that mad a contract legally valid. Granny Marianna said that she had seen this seal and kind of paper one time before: when her older sister that wanted to marry a crippled Historian had been banned from the family with such a letter. And she couldn't do anything about it because it was legal. It wasn't allowed to use such a letter but nobody could prove the opposite because her signature was under the contract. It seemed like she had signed it of her own will.

Granny Marianna told Yuliana that she had send a nice worded letter to her parents and that no answer had been given yet.

Since then life had been easy again. Yuliana could enjoy the good weather and twice a nice thunderstorm. She trained with Master Raryen and spoke after his encouragement with other Leaders that lived in Markit or near the city. She learned a few things and they asked her some questions mostly about things they themselves had experienced in their quests.

The only shadow on her high spirits was the messenger of the tournament hosts who told her that she had to possibilities – either she couldn't attend the tournament or she signed over to Group A because she was seen as a threat. Nobody knew how a Leader would react to such a massive group after coming recently in their inheritance. In the time till they found their companions they were a bit sensible.

Yuliana supported this decision to a point. But to place her in Group A were the brutes fought? She wanted to show her talents in the noble arts of fighting not beat someone up. And with her small frame she would look like a bad joke next to those guys. Master Raryen felt insulted when he heard of this decision and spoke personally with the tournament hosts. They didn't gave in but told Raryen that if she showed enough talent Yuliana could fight in the “each-against-all-tournament” on the last day. It was an honor to be chosen for it but it wasn't exactly what Yuliana and Master Raryen had planned for her first tournament.

Master Raryen entered her tent. “Are you ready?”

Yuliana stood up and nodded. “As ready as I can ever get. Help me to gird my sword and the dagger?”

“It would be an honor.” Yuliana knew that he didn't joked. It was really an honor for a teacher to gird his student to the first tournament.

After that he looked her over. “Good, one last advice. You can do what you want with them as long as you don't kill them. If they die after the tournament nobody can prove it was your fault. And don't show your fear. Some of them look like they eat little angels for breakfast and you will look like a good luncheon. But their bark is mostly worse than their bite. Beware of the ones who don't try to insult you on first sight. That are your real opponents in this fight. Be careful if you have to fight against the other woman in this group. Her name's Maleena of Long Hill. Fought once against her – nice demeanor and nasty tricks. You should be nearly equal. Maleena has just eight thousand years more expert knowledge but you shouldn't worry to much.”

“Thank you” Yuliana replied with a smirk. She wasn't afraid but she should have fought in a group were the oldest fighter was three thousand years old and not eight thousand years older than her!

“No reason to smother her with such happiness” someone told Master Raryen from the entry of the tent.

Madreus, Carol and Granny Marianna stood their.

“My big sister is so – grown-up and good looking. Don't let them eat you.”

“I heard one of your best hawks is the price for the winner of Group A. If you aren't nice to me, I will win Tava and eat her for dinner” Yuliana joked when Madreus crushed her and flustered a few feathers.

“You know why she is this fast? There is not enough flesh on her to give a good meal” Madreus replied laughingly while Granny Marianna muttered some curses under her breath and preened Yulianas feathers.

Someone opened her tent. “The open ceremony will start in a minute. Please go to your assigned group. Good luck.”